Building a retroactive 94 Olympic 6-7 team set

[Sportfreund]

What do you guys think of this idea. Building a card set for around 6-7 of the top teams for the 94 Olympics...of course NHLers weren't allowed to participate in these ones so I'll use this HFBoards thread to help me pick players for the teams:
http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/sh....php?t=1401313

Anyone have any tips for me? I'm thinking of buying cards from 1995 to build the set since they'll have the stats from the preceding seasons though I don't know which set to choose the cards from...maybe I'll mix/match based on whichever ones are cheap. The other problem I'll have is that for teams like Finland, there were not that many players in the NHL playing for Finland or Czech Republic or wherever so I won't be able to get even 20 cards for a team from there. Where/what cards should I look at which would be cheap bases for these European teams (Sweden/Russia/Czech Republic/Finland/Slovakia)?

Lemieux
Gretzky
Recchi
Messier
Lindros
Yzerman
Robitaille
Sakic
Oates
Neely
Francis
Shanahan
Gilmour
Fleury
Roberts
Linden
Tocchett
Clark
Graves
Damphousse
K Stevens
Sheppard


D
Bourque
MacInnis
Stevens
Coffey
Murphy
Desjardins
Niedermayer
Blake

G
Roy
Belfour
Joseph

Also, was an Olympic Card specific set ever made for 98 or 2002 or 2006?

[30ranfordfan]

The only Olympic cards I ever remember being made, were in 1992-93 Score, and they were of the Canadian team from the 1992 Olympics. I don't think there was anything for the other Olympic years.


As for what sets to use for European players, I've got a couple of suggestions:

Many UD and Pinnalce sets had WJC cards from 1990 until the late 90s. This may not get you many players, but there were several guys that would have been in sets like those, but never made it to the NHL. Some probably played at the '94 Olympics.

Checkout the full checklist for 1992-93 Upper Deck too. There are a lot of Russian & Swedish interational cards, I think from the IIHF World Championships. If you were looking at those two countries, some of the non-NHLers would have cards in those sets, I'm sure.

Also, checkout some of the sets that Semic made back in the 90s. European cards:
http://opg.sportscardforum.com/scf/inv/viewset/49827

(that's one of several checklists)

Lots of international players, many that never had NHL cards.

[Wickabee]

Checkout the full checklist for 1992-93 Upper Deck too. There are a lot of Russian & Swedish interational cards, I think from the IIHF World Championships. If you were looking at those two countries, some of the non-NHLers would have cards in those sets, I'm sure.

Also, checkout some of the sets that Semic made back in the 90s. European cards:
http://opg.sportscardforum.com/scf/inv/viewset/49827

(that's one of several checklists)

Lots of international players, many that never had NHL cards.

That's the first set that came to mind for me. UD REALLY spread out the international cards in that set. From the Swedish WJC RCs cards to the Russian Stars, to the other WJC cards to Team USA to the other WJC cards, that set is amazing for international collectors.

[g-force]

Look at 91-92 Upper Deck as well which had World Jr. and Canada Cup cards of players in their international uniforms.